Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1887-05-05
PAPER MACHE.
Method of It's Manufacture and Uses to Which
1t is Applied.

Pittsburg Chronicle.

1t is Applied.
Pittsburg Chronicle.
"a dollar you can't tell me what that
matchbox is made Of" said Dick, as
he handed the object to his friend, Harry
Dolt.
Don't bet, in the first place." replied
Harry, ''and don't care in the second.
'Spose all man wants to know is whether
it'll hold matches and isn't too big for his
pocket"
Never saw such fellow as you in my
life. I'm sure that if the last Judgment
noon tomorrow, you'd take it as matter
of course"
"Why not? When I run up against
the inevitable I try to manage things so
as not to get conclusion of the brain.
Is there anything as startling as your
sup posed announcement in that match
box?"
"Did You ever see piece o: polished
ebony as light as that?"
polished pancakes! It's nothing but
papier mache."
perhaps SO. But, admitting the fact,
there is child of about 26 solid winters in
front of me who can't tell how papier
mache is made.
sI'm very much given to minding my
own business, and the making of papier
mache is no part of it. But think it is
an open question whether you could de-
scribe the process yourself. By the way,
why does it interest your"
II have the prosperity of Pittsburgh at
heart. Some people seem to think that
all we can or ought to do here is to make
iron, steel, and glass. Now, with our
splendid advantages in point of fuel, I
think Pittsburgh would be frst-class
place for the manufacture Of paper car
wheels"
''That's quite another matter. Now, I'm
prepared to listen. But you know love
brevity."
"Well, cotton forms the basis of the pa
per used. The sheets are pasted together
with dextrine until the mass is thick
enough to go under the hydraulic press.
There they are squeezed into any desired
form, which when dry is as hard as and
good deal lighter, bulk for bulk, than
any wood"
Brief enough; go on"
"This product is poreless, fberless, sap
less, and knotless. It is subjected for
twenty-fOur hours to a high drying heat.
Then it can be worked with any kind of
tool. The vanishing of it is mere de-
tall"
sit is from this substance that are
manufactured, all those bracelets of large
black beds studded with Scotch imitation
diamonds, all those necklaces, pins, clasps,
and trinkets of all sorts that are taken
for pitch coal or some precious wood.
Again, those handsome bracelets, COM
posed of semi-lucid and opaline globules,
that seem to have been cut out of stone
formed by concentric layers, like certain
precious stones, are merely of papier
mache, cemented with white varnish and
coated with the same. So, too, those
beautiful nacreous, painted, and gilded
trays, round tables, and caskets that are
known as Japanese work are merely of
papier mache. The Japanese know but
one kind OF gliding, while we have two
the dead and the brilliant. We have, like
wise, liquid nacre taken from the scales
of the whitehall that well initiates the
white current and certain transparent
berries. The nacre is solidly inIaid
by means of the hydraulic press, and
finally the surface is finished with pumice
stone to make it perfectly even, and
covered with colorless varnish OF the
first quality"
"Well, that was worth listening to. But
if I were as much interes ted in all this
kind of stuff as you are I think I'd try
and invent something myself"
"Too many patent sharps around.
Wouldn't pay. More fun in letting other
fellows do that"